Junior doctors’ protest

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Siliguri, Feb. 5: Around 20 junior doctors of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital organised a three-hour sit-in today to protest alleged reservation of a bed in the critical care unit for patients referred by the north Bengal development minister.

The junior doctors have alleged that when they approached the hospital superintendent Amerendranath Sarkar, on Saturday with their demand, he allegedly misbehaved with them.

“Since the time Sarkar has taken over as superintendent of the hospital around a month ago, he has kept a bed reserved in the CCU for patients recommended by Gautam Deb. The bed remains empty most of the time and is not used even if a patient in a ward is in a critical state,” said Tushar Kanti Sarkar, a junior doctor.

The sit-in started from 2pm. The 10-bed CCU started functioning around a year ago.

Another demand of the junior doctors was the supply of continuous drinking water in the different wards.

“The authorities do not provide continuous drinking water to the staff. When we approached the superintendent with our demands, he misbehaved with us in front of patients and their relatives, calling these issues nonsense,” Sarkar said.

The demonstration was withdrawn at 5pm after authorities promised permanent drinking water supply at the hospital.

The NBMCH superintendent refuted allegations that a bed was reserved for patients recommended by the north Bengal development minister in the CCU.

“There is no truth in the claim of reservation of a bed in the CCU. Patients are admitted there on the basis of the seriousness of their health condition.We don’t know why the junior doctors have raised such a baseless allegation,” said Sarkar.

“As for their demand for supply of drinking water, we are working on the issue and in next two-three months, the hospital will have drinking water supply in all its wards,” he added.